Microsoft has decided to issue a special patch outside its usual patchday rhythm for all its Internet Explorer versions to close a severe vulnerability issue. Downloads of Firefox have accordingly skyrocketed.

Microsoft's announcement promises a patch for the security hole reported in Security Advisory 979352 "by early evening Thursday." As a workaround, the new Internet Explorer 8 is supposed to be more secure in that it has additional security mechanisms built in, such as data execution prevention and protected mode, although it isn't entirely free of the vulnerability.

Mozilla reports that the warnings from the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) have helped increase Firefox downloads.